1 When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
2 The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
3 When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed
4 And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
5 When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
6 Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
7 And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main,
8 Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
9 When I have seen such interchange of state,
10 Or state itself confounded to decay;
11 Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
12 That Time will come and take my love away.
13 This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
14 But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
|
|